Volunteer lands front-row seat at Olympics

A LUCKY Hucknall woman will have a front-row seat at next year’s Olympic Games — after being selected as one of the volunteers charged with making sure London 2012 runs smoothly.

The golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in the greatest sporting show on earth has gone to Katy Rose (pictured), of Edgewood Drive.

She has been appointed an Olympic marker, which means she will be one of a huge army of nearly 70,000 volunteers involved in the day-to-day running of the Games.

Katy (38) has been chosen from 250,000 applicants who all wanted to be part of the Olympics, which were last held in Britain in 1948.

“I am so chuffed to be picked for this,” said Katy. “It is all about the kudos. It will be one of those things you remember for the rest of your life and you tell your grandchildren about.

“I believe that people like the volunteers will make the Games

“I applied to be a volunteer a year ago and forgot all about it. I applied for tickets through the lottery system and still didn’t get anywhere.

“But then I got a call about my application to be involved as a volunteer and things just moved on from there.”

Katy, who was born in Luton and grew up in Enfield, London took the first steps to becoming involved in the Games in January when she was called by the British Olympic Committee for an interview in Coventry.

It was one of countless interviews held throughout the country to whittle down the number of applicants.

Katy later faced a second interview when she was shown a sneak preview of the Olympic Park and a video from Lord Sebastian Coe, who is chief of the Games’s organising committee and was key in bringing the event to London.

Katy will be in ‘event services’, which includes responsibility for working with crowds at various Olympic venues.

She will receive her uniform in the near future but has already been given an official ID badge.

“I can’t wait”, said Katy, who is a former nurse and has lived in Hucknall for four years. “It is very exciting. Some people have asked why I want to do this, but it is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be involved in such a massive global event in your own country.” — DISPIC NHUD11-2572-1.

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